One Thousand Songs Later

It had been two days since I first regained my conscience. Even though there was no internet access, I could still look at the calendar app.

"Louis! You're awake!" I ran over to him and helped him sit up, leaning his back against the wall.

"Wh-what? Where are we? What happened?" Those clueless words were enough to shatter my heart into a million pieces. I braced myself not to cry.

"I don't know where we are." I answered, regretfully.

"How did we get here?"

"I don't know."

"Who did this?"

"Kyle."

"How did he escape from-"

"DON'T YOU SEE LOUIS ?" I screamed impatiently. "We are trapped here, doomed to die, at the mercy of an immoral capturer!" How could Louis not realize this.

"Don't loose hope Lily, there's always hope. Someone will find us and set us free." I laughed, maniacally.

"Do you really think that they're going to let us slip out of their fingers again? At anytime they could stop sending food or take away the bathroom!" I pointed to another room that I had discovered yesterday.

"Well how did you escape last time?"

"I found the key, but there is no key now! There's not even a fucking door!" Louis stared at me, sympathetically, probably thinking how crazy I am.

"Come here," Louis said softly and held his arms out. Slowly, after staring at him stupidly for a while, I sat down beside him and buried my face into his shirt. And before I knew it, I was crying again.

Dammit.

"Hey, it's alright, don't worry we'll figure it out," Louis cooed. I sighed deeply.

"How I wish I could believe you." I whispered.

"I know what will make you feel better! Music!" Louis pulled out his phone and turned Siri on.

"Play Playlist Never Will I Ever," he clearly commanded.

Instantly, a familiar tune rang from the phone.

"No! Louis! I've heard this song one too many times! I don't want to hear it ag-"

"You're insecure!
Don't know what for!
You're turning heads when you walk through the door! Don't need make up!
To cover up!
Being the way that you are is enough!"

"Louis, stop!" Louis raised an imaginary microphone to his mouth and stood up.

"Everyone else in room can see it!
Everyone else but you!
Baby you light up my world like nobody else!
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed!
And when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell!"

"Seriously! I'm fin-"

"YOU DON'T KNOW!
OH, OH!
YOU DON'T KNOW YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!
IF ONLY YOU SAW WHAT I CAN SEE!
YOU'D UNDERSTAND WHY I WANT YOU SO DESPERATELY!
RIGHT NOW I'M LOOKING AT YOU AND I CAN'T BELIEVE!
YOU DON'T KNOW!
OH, OH!
YOU DON'T KNOW YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!
OH, OH!
THAT'S WHAT MAKE YOU BEAUTIFUL!"

Louis started to pretend he was performing in front of an audience (he was doing pretending to reach out into the crowd and grab girls hands and jumped up and down like a real performance), and turned to me with a grin plastered on his face.

"You finished?" I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" Louis bellowed to the imaginary crowd.

"I love you Lou! I love your bum Louis!" He yelled, imitating what his fans probably, strike that, definitely would've screamed at him.

"Good night everybody!" Louis walked over to my side of the room, while waving to his fans.

What's funny was that 'What Makes You Beautiful' was still playing on his phone. When Louis composed himself (brushing away loose strands of hair and straightening his blue and white, stripped shirt), he sat next to me.

"Enjoy the performance?"

"Very," I said in a dull voice.

"Aw, come on Lily, you know you loved it!" Louis began poking at my stomach and immediately I giggled. I scrambled away from Louis.

"Please don't tickle me!" I begged.

"Nope! Sorry, if I don't tickle you, I'll die! It's mandatory to living!" I tried running away from Louis, but seeing that our room isn't exactly big and there's no way to go, he caught me and immediately started tickling me.

"Stop Louis!" I shrieked through giggles.

"Never!" I managed to push his hands away from my stomach and ran into the bathroom, locking it behind me.

"Come play with me." Louis said creepily, like in a horror movie.

"You sound so creepy!" I hollered.

"Well you're going to have to come out eventually." Said Louis. I blinked, processing what Louis had said.

Actually, I might be able to stay in the bathroom for the rest of my life. I don't know how long I'm going to survive here. I can only imagine what horrors Kyle has in store for me.

"Lily? What's going on? Why'd you get so quiet?" Louis asked.

I slumped onto the tiled floor, ignoring the small bruises that were beginning to appear, and covered my eyes with my hands.

"Let me in!" Louis frantically twisted the doorknob but I staid in my fetal position and began to softly cry.

"Lily! Lily-are you crying? Goddammit Lily! Let me in!" Louis banged on the door this time.

I raised my hand to the rusty knob and twisted it. Louis rushed over to me and put his arms around me.

After a little while he asked me:"What did I say?"

"You didn't say anything. It's what you did."

"Is it something that Kyle did?" I met Louis's eyes and gave him a weak smile.

"It's something my Dad did."

"You're Da-oh." I closed my eyes. Out of everything. I've shut out of my head, that I've hidden, the memory that had the most locks around it is my family.

When I was young, my Dad loved tickling me and I loved it too. It would always start with him chasing me around the house and he always caught me. Those memories were caught on tape, which I had thrown away when I left for England. Now I wish I had kept them.

Have you ever had one of those dreams before? The dreams where one of your most precious family member has died and you wake up crying? Well imagine it not being a dream. Imagine your entire family dead.That's not something you cherish.

What scares me the most is that I'm slowly forgetting the happiness we shared on Christmas morning or the way we laughed at the corniest jokes. I love my family more than anything. Maybe even more than Louis, Eleanor, and Luke even. But they're gone. And not just the ones that I knew, every single person that I could be even the slightest bit related to is gone as well.

"Ask me something." I heard Louis say.

"I'm crying and you're telling me to ask you something?" I snapped, bitterly.

"I know you're hurting but trust me, this will help." I stayed quiet and continued to let the tears drop, screaming profanities in my mind at Louis.

"Come on, millions of girls would kill for a chance like this with me." I couldn't help but smile at this and brushed away my tears.

"Alright fine." I gave Louis a smile, grateful of Louis's everlasting positivity.

"Any time now." Said Louis.

"Shut up, I'm thinking!" I yelled playfully and nudged his shoulder.

"Hurry up!" Louis whined impatiently.

"Okay, okay, um what did you talk about with Luke in the bathroom with Niall, Zayn, Liam, and Harry?" I've always been very curious about their discussion.

"I don't really remember much, it was along time ago, but the first fifteen minutes we listed off a series of threats if Luke broke your heart. And then the last fifteen minutes we listed some guidelines and how he should treat you."

"Name a few specifically."

"The threats included suing, beheading, beating, killing, stab-" my mouth dropped, completely humiliated that they would do something like that.

"Not threats! The guidelines!"

"Oh that! Um, always help and protect you even if he was at the verge of dying. Don't break up with you unless you want him to. Always ask before he can kiss you. Never hurt you in any way. The list goes on but the most important one was love you more than anyone else, even himself."

"He never failed."

"Good." Louis nodded, satisfied with my reply. "Now that I answered one of your questions, you must answer one of mine."

"Okay." I said nervously.

"I know that Kyle has done many bad things to you but I can tell what you're holding back. You've practically told us nothing. Only that he kidnapped you and forced you to become a prostitute. What else did he do to you?" I sighed, I would have to tell him eventually.

"In the beginning he was nicer, the first month I was just locked in a room with a bed, treadmill, toilet, sink, and shower. He would come every day to give me food and I would run on the treadmill for thirty minutes. But after the first month, he found a younger boy, who was willing to pay and take my virginity." I paused, even though this was a very serious conversation, I didn't exactly feel comfortable talking about this with Louis, my adoptive father. But he motioned me to go on.

"That was when Kyle began pushing me into more extreme workout sessions. The second month, Kyle made me do all the dieting plans and burn four times as many calories as I was consuming. And when I refused . . " My lip trembled at the memory of what he did to me.

"H-he would slip some s-sleeping drought into my water. During the time that I was unconscious, Kyle would still let patients come and t-take me in my sleep." I paused when I heard Louis inhale sharply. I took a deep breath and began again.

"What was the scariest was when I woke up, I knew there was a very high chance that I was pregnant because Kyle would have more men come than when I was conscious and I never knew how many. But I never got pregnant."

"Do you think you would've gotten an abortion if you did?" Louis asked carefully.

"Kyle was always very cautious with that, I was on birth control and did he made me do everything I could to prevent me. If I did get pregnant . . ." I bit my lip hard and I could feel tears of shame slip down my cheeks.

"I-I thought I was against abortion, but I would never want to bring a baby into the world where Kyle could hurt him or her."

"Did Kyle ever physically hurt you?"

"Kyle could never hurt me in any way, that would effect my health because clients expect top condition."

We just sat there, in the bathroom floor with me curled up in Louis's chest - probably a very strange sight seeing that we're about the same height as each other.

"How'd you - how did you do it?" Louis whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"How did you stay the same, I - I would've turned so bitter, but you didn't change one bit." I smiled.

"Kyle definitely knew how to break me to pieces but you know what made me glue them back together?"

"What?"

"You did."

"What?"

"Yeah, I stayed sane because I listened to all the One Direction songs on my Phone. By the way, you deserve so many more solos." Louis chuckled.

"What about our singing . . ."

"Kept me out of the sanitarium? It reminded me that I'm not alone and all of the good memories."

"Didn't you get sick of the albums? If I have to listen to Take Me Home and Up All Night one more time I'm going to hurl." I laughed.

"Never, it was the only connection I had to the world, I had only downloaded those albums and never got around to download more songs. By the way, why was the playlist named 'Never Will I Ever'?"

"Because I thought I was never going to listen to my own songs but my sisters put them on my phone anyways. What song would you first download if you could right now?"

"Ours by Taylor Swift." I said immediately.

"What?! Come on! What about Midnight Memories! Anything but Taylor Swift!" Louis looked at me like I was insane.

"I loved Taylor Swift before I loved One Direction! I don't care that Harry dated her either!"

"If you had never met us, who would you choose to meet? Us or her?"

"Taylor Swift."

"Ouch."

"Sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it."

"Moving on!"

"I'll never move on." Louis said dramatically, hand over his heart.

"Oh you'll get over it you big baby."

"Hey! I'm not a baby!" Louis posted.

"You're more childish than Leo!" That's when Louis's smile faded and everything went silent.

"We should get to bed." Louis mumbled. He got up from his sitting position, walked over to a corner, and laid down. I followed him.

"Louis, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mention Le-"

"I'm tired Lily, let's talk about it in the morning." I sighed and laid down in the opposite corner and closed my eyes.

Dammit, I thought, Just when I was starting to get used to a mattress too.

"Louis?" I whispered.

"Mhmm."

"C-can you sing for me?"

"Why do girls always want the guy to sing them to sleep." Louis complained.

"Can you blame me?" I asked.

"Touché."

"No, I want you to sing to me because when I was with Kyle and hurting, the sound of your voice was the sole thing the comforted me."


"Really?"

"Yes, really, and if you don't start singing soon some real crying is about go down."

"Okay, okay. Ugh, I really do and don't want to sing this song."

"What?" I asked confusedly.

"I want to sing the song because I really like this song but I don't want to sing the song because . . ."

"Because?""Because I was going to sing it to Leo at his upcoming birthday party."

"Oh." I said. It was the kind of 'oh' that Louis said to me when I talked about my Dad.

"And . . ." Louis put his hand over his eyes and groaned. "It's written by Taylor Swift."

"Ha! You do like her!"

"Whatever, I'm just going to start singing."

"You do that." I said smugly.

"Wait! What's the name?" I quickly asked.

"You'll figure it out." Louis said before clearing his throat and sitting up.

"Your little hands wrapped around my finger
And it's so quiet in the world tonight.
Your little eyelids flutter 'cause your dreaming
So I tuck you in, turn on your favorite night light.

To you, everything's funny,
You got nothing to regret.
I'd give all I have honey,
For you to stay like that.

Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little.
Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
It could stay this simple.

I won't let anyone hurt you,
Won't let no one break your heart.
No, no one will desert you,
Just try to never grow up, never grow up.

You're in the car on the way to the movies
And you're mortified your mom's dropping you off.
At fourteen there's so much you can't do
And you can't wait to move out someday and call your own shots.

But don't make her drop you off around the the block,
Remember, she's getting older too
And don't loose the way that you dance around
In your pj's getting ready for school.

Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little.
Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
It could stay this simple.

No one's ever burned you,
Nothing's ever left you scarred.
And even though you want to,
Just try to never grow up.

Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room.
Mesmerize what it sounded like when your Dad came home.
Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother's favorite songs.
I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone.

So here I am in my new apartment,
Big city they just dropped me off
It's so much colder than I thought it would be
So I tuck myself in and turn my night light on.

Wish I'd never grown up
I wish I'd never grown up

Oh, I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up
Could still be little.
Oh, I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up
It could still be simple.

Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little.
Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
It could stay this simple.

Won't let anyone hurt you,
Won't let no one break your heart.
No, no one will desert you,
Just try to never grow up, never grow up.

Don't you ever grow up (Never grow up)
Just never grow up."

"That was beautiful." I whispered.

"Thank you." Louis croaked.

"Oh Louis, you'll see Leo again, I promise." I reassured.

"No, if it comes between you and I, you are going back." Louis said seriously.

"No! Absolutely not!"

"You're younger! You should get to live your life a bit longer."

"We both know that mentally, you are twenty years younger than me. Besides, billions of people, mostly girls, are in love with you. Do you know how devastated the world would be if you were lost?" It's true, no one would miss me if I was lost, I'm unknown to the world.

"I know what people think of me, I'm never serious and childish."

"That's what the world loves the most about you, you're boyish attitude and child nature, you bring what the world needs; laughter and goodness." I said sincerely.

"All the other boys can offer that." Louis said dismissively.

"I'm sure there's a time where you were serious about something."

"I'm never serious, even when I proposed to Eleanor, I wasn't serious, I try to be but when I did it - it didn't go so well." Louis stared down at his hands.

"Tell me about it."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Not now, just . . . not now. It's too painful."

"Tell me a little bit."

"Let's just say, after I screwed up, I swore the guys to secrecy to the point where no one even knows that we had met before the X - Factor."

"What?!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry . . . I - I can't say anymore."

"But . . . "

"Please, I have kept this a secret for about ten years, I can't risk facing it again."

"What hap- what was that?" I whipped my head around and glared intently and the white wall behind me. "It was a banging noise."

"Maybe someone has found us!" Louis said hopefully."And in that case," Louis grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards the opposite wall, "let's not try to get killed along the way."

We both waited impatiently as the banging noises got louder.

"Hello? Who's there?" Louis called out.

"L-louis?" Asked a small voice

"Yes we're in here! Please get us out!" I begged.

"One sec!" The girlish voice shouted.Two seconds later, the most enormous bang erupted from the wall and a huge hole tore through, rocks, gravel, and dust showering us.

Luckily, Louis put his arms around me, shielding me from most of the rock and gravel, but the dust managed to infiltrate his hold and overwhelmed my eyes and throat.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" A familiar voice bellowed.

"We need to go, right now!" The girl yelled and grabbed Louis's hand to pull him out of the hole. Louis grabbed mine and we weaved our way through the debris and enormous slabs of rock.

After we had stepped outside the white room, I immediately could tell we were in Africa, the sand filled the air and the intense heat could not be mistaken. But it could be any part of Africa, probably somewhere with zero civilization so that if we did escape, no one would find us.

I couldn't see much through the gray dust and didn't dare cough to help my poor throat, afraid that Kyle would hear me. Although we were making a lot of noise climbing over the rock. The gray dust was hard to see through but possible to our advantage, maybe Kyle wouldn't be able to find us.

"Leaving so soon?" I screamed when I heard a voice right behind me, breath those words in my ear.

Before Louis pulled me from Kyle's grip, my heart rate had gone up detrimentally high.We raced across a patchy terrain, eventually reaching the end to the dust. I could see it up ahead, a gleaming motorcycle. But that's when I saw it.

His body. Luke's body. Beaten and blodied.

And that's when everything went dark.

Notes

THIS CHAPTER IS SO F-ING LONG! I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, hope this makes up for it! I think the next chapter is the conclusion.
Love Ya!
-Louistomlinson